Dunkin Research Paper

Kernisca Donacin
Obesity in Adolescent
Back in my days my brother, sisters and I was always fortunate to have a two parent household. What was even better, a stay at home mom who cater to our every needs. Whether its school meetings, recitals and any of our game, she was always there. What was even better about having a stay at home mom, was something we didn’t realize, something that I could probably say that kept me growing healthy, strong and in shape and that was, she always made sure we had a good home cook meals. From breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner, my mother made sure we were not swept away from what I call today the “fast food life.”
In today’s society it has become more inevitable to see both parents in the workforce,
technology by far has increase rapidly and fast food has replace a good home cook meal. Due to all of this, we are now considered a fat nation and the worst part of it all is this epidemic is affecting our children. According to heart.org, study shows “The obesity epidemic in children continues to grow on the basis of recent data from the Bogalusa Heart Study. Compared with 1973 to 1974, the proportion of children 5 to 17 years of age who were obese was 5 times higher in 2008 to 2009.” Who is feeding our children? With having both parents in the work place, obesity has drastically increased at its highest. The rate of obesity among children from ages 6 to 11 has tripled since the 1960s, according to figures from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, leading some public health officials to call the situation an epidemic. To answer the question as to who is feeding our children? It’s the microwavable foods and as working parent this was the easiest invention that ever came about. You can actually get a home cooked meal with just a click of a button on a microwave, it fast, safer and less stress for both parents and children. Certainly this was a great idea, but it is slowly diminishing the health our children.
Technology by far has increased rapidly, computers, cell phones, video games has taken over childhood. Growing up, technology was not like how it is today. It would be rare to see our neighbors with video games none the less a cell phone. We were more eager to going out on the fields, playing running around and most importantly get creative and thinking out the box. We were in better shape, had self confident, more creative and better academic performance than the children that we see growing up today. According to Childrensdefense.org “Research based on interviews has shown that obese children have lower self-esteem and self-confidence than their peers. Low self-esteem has been linked to having fewer friends, more depression, and poorer academic performance in school.” Instead of getting out and doing more, they would rather be indoors either on a cell phone, computer or video games.
There is a quote for Dunkin Donut that says “America runs on Dunkin”; I have to agree with this quote by saying “America runs on fast foods”.
We are living in a fast world and it’s almost like we can’t find the time to at least breathe. It is now more common to see that in every corner is a fast food restaurant, why? because we are consuming more fast foods. The more time and money we put into something, the more it becomes a demand and producers will give it to us by any means necessary. Most fast food restaurants has absolutely no types of nutrients, it’s like we are eating them just to keep our bellies full. For example, why won’t Mcdonalds burgers go bad? According to Noms and Sciunce, “75 percent water, 19 percent protein, 2.5 percent intramuscular fat, 1.2 percent carbohydrates and 2.3 percent other soluble non-protein substances. These include nitrogenous compounds, such as amino acids, and inorganic substances such as minerals” This is what we are indulging into and the saddest part is that we give this to our children for dinner. We sometimes even award our children with fast foods if they did a good job but what we don’t realize is that we are killing them softly. Today not only do we see lots of fast food on each corner, they have made that middle of the nights craving easier to get with the 24 hours fast foods drive thru. A faster way of getting obese and living an unhealthy
life.
Realistically speaking eating healthy can be really expensive and studies shows that obesity falls into the lower class households.
However, I think that education can help make a difference, if you are well educated about the risk of something; you tend to make better decision and a change. Just because you can’t afford healthier wholesome foods, does not mean you can’t change the way you eat. For example the government has provided help to low income families who needs food assistance, that type of help can allow you to feed your family in a more healthy way. The two parent household is a thing of the past, technology will not stop growing and fast food restaurants can probably change if we change. America lets us educate our children because they are the
future.

Reference

Childhood Obesity Retrieved on May 23, 2013 from http://www.childrensdefense.org/policy-priorities/childrens-health/child-nutrition/childhood-obesity.html, web
Overweight & Obesity Retrieved on May 25, 2013 from http://www.heart.org/idc/groups/heart-public/@wcm/@sop/@smd/documents/downloadable/ucm_319588.pdf, web
Why won’t Mc.Donalds burger go bad? Retrieved on May 24, 2013 from http://nomsandsciunce.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/why-wont-those-mcdonalds-burgers-go-bad/, web.